Rabbit News & Awareness

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Tag: mcvities

Ok – so we know McVities put profits before people (see the recent round of redundancies just before Christmas time) but apparently they don’t care much for animal welfare either.

Their NEW Christmas ad is out and storming the world as the cutest thing of all time.

McVities Promoting Rabbit Cruelty

This ‘cute’ commercial shows puppies, kittens, bunnies, ducklings and more all looking festive. So what’s wrong with that I hear some say…

Firstly – advertising sweet, baby critters at Christmas time is a sure fire way to get kids in the mood for a new bundle of joy. Xmas lists all over the world will now have livestock added to them (and some Santa’s will have to search very hard indeed for a baby narwhal).

ANIMALS ARE NOT TOYS!

None of the good charities, rescues or veterinary organisations recommend giving pets as presents. In most cases – its a one way ticket to the rescue shelter in the New Year.

Dont Give Pets as Gifts

Secondly – the handling of these poor creatures is awful. Forced to lay on their backs, held by children, wearing clothes and sat in tea cups – do I need to say it again…ANIMALS ARE NOT TOYS! This will ultimately result in some kids (and adults) trying to mis handle their pets to re create a cute photo moment. Stressful for the pet, not fun and not cute.

This nicely leads me on the the third biggest problem. The rabbit. Cute? Yes. Fluffy? Yes. Lots of ‘pester power’ from the children to buy one? Yes. should you buy one? NO!

Rabbits do not make good pets for kids. Period. This particular commercial shows the baby bunny forced to lay on its back on the child’s lap. This is actually called ‘Trancing’ or ‘Tonic Immobility’. It is a hugely stressful state for the rabbit. As a prey species, they pretend to be dead when they think they are being attacked by a predator. They lay there, frozen in fear, heart racing and fearing their death. Still think its cute? Studies have proven that their stress hormone levels also increase at this time (blood cortisol levels). The Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund have been tirelessly fighting to get the right info out into the public space to STOP people from handling rabbits this way. This TV ad has successfully put back all their good work by years! Every filming should have a welfare officer on duty to ensure all animals are treated correctly – I wonder if they had one and if so…I wonder what qualifications they hold as clearly many animals were mishandled here.

And lastly – who wants loads of animal hair on their biscuits anyway?

If like me – you feel the McVities Christmas ad promotes cruel mishandling of animals and encourages the sale of innocent creatures, please consider contacting them to politely let them know. I will be boycotting McVities this year and encourage others to do so. #boycottmcvities

“We can confirm that no animals were harmed in the making of the McVitie’s Victoria Christmas ad. We had a professional vet and handlers on set overseeing all the filming to ensure the welfare of the animals was our top priority. The professionals on set have confirmed that in their opinion the rabbit filmed was absolutely not in a state of tonic immobility or “trancing”; the camera angles used in the filming are clearly misleading. However, we understand that the ad could mislead people into thinking that putting a rabbit on its back is recommended, when this is not the case. We have therefore taken the decision to remove this scene in the ad as soon as we can. We’d like to thank anyone who raised this issue with us and would like to remind the public that they should follow professional advice as to how to best handle animals in specific circumstances including from The Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund – www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk.”